The frog was a gigantic being at least 25 heads high and 10 heads wide. Its wet leaf green skin glistened under the dying embers of the escaping sun. An aggressive pattern of swirling black lines and dots covered its whole body, from face to the bottom; while its belly was chalk white and the front of its legs were marble yellow. Its hands were huge in their own right and fingered not clawed, rear legs long and muscular. Its sinuous and characteristically long slimy tongue induced fear int eh hearts of the soldiers; it was a weapon specially evolved to hunt anything the lazy frog could fit in its mouth.
There was a set of large black eyes fixed to the side of its immovable head and sat on the ground with its rear legs at tension, ready to leap him away from danger at all times. However, the same leap that could take it away from a predator could also bring it closer to prey. Beating it was going to be tough, but first, we needed to get rid of the fear spreading in our midst like wildfire.
Another frog wasn’t supposed to join the battle. We still had no idea whether the one in the well was dead or alive! The new addition was not welcome by any of us.
The frog passive as a rock, stood among our broken lines, looking with its head kept parallel to the ground, determining where to start feeding.
Bushtit reports and plans —didn’t I say the ground situation is different? The hateful one scowled. You are responsible for whatever happens next. She poked me on the flank and kept cursing me. 5555th scolded her for being shallow-minded and even 2K came in for support, but I couldn’t pay them attention.
She was right. It was my plan.
I dug away from reality into my mind and hid in the depths of my flooding thoughts.
I considered why something so woefully huge had fewer legs compared to something small as I. Maybe the answer was hidden in the way it sat on its rear legs in a deep squat? And I wondered how it could communicate without antennae; all the bugs and insects had them. I wondered where the frogs had dropped theirs. However, I had to admit, if the frogs had antennae they would have been releasing enough pheromones to saturate everything around them, creating a dead zone for other insects like us ants.
So maybe it was a good thing that their form of communication was so intrusive and open. Anyone could spy upon them, but they were also pretty conspicuous thanks to their blunderingly huge body. So maybe it didn’t matter? Although their croaks definitely had a longer range, it was not without pitfalls. The frogs had exchanged range for privacy and it was only a matter of time before a larger predator —though I doubted there was anything larger than the frogs— located them.
There were even more questions.
How could its body keep shape? Just how large was its heart to keep such a huge body inflated? How much did it eat every day? How large was its hunting zone? Why had I never heard of them before?
Thankfully, the frog took its time swallowing the soldiers. That sudden pause gave our leaders precious time to judge their next steps.
The frog straightened its body to lift its head.
There were crunches. It crushed the soldiers by rapidly clenching throat muscles, and swallowed them. Even the frog didn’t dare engulf them alive and have them carve a way out from the inside.
The soldiers were overwhelmed at first, but the respite got them out of the daze.
Snap out of it! My inner voice rattled, and I followed its suggestion. There was a message in the air: a burning passage of passion. Attack! It read, one word, the only action needed. I saw Star commanding a large group toward the frog for a head-on collision. Our troop leader was closely following behind him.
The soldiers followed the order. They were all over the place and in fear, but not lost.
Fear wasn’t enough to take their fire out. There were no weak ones among them; only those who were yet not strong enough. However, no matter the case, the soldiers didn’t run from a fight. They had wanted an adventure. This was it.
What else could they do? The backup plan demanded a retreat. An undoing of everything we had accomplished. We had brought the frog away from its puddle where it was invincible and had stranded it in the middle of a wet patch of land with flood breakers to mount and drain lanes to hide. This was our best opportunity. Losing this chance meant letting the frogs eat away at the city’s strength one hunting group at a time. It meant giving up.
Those near the frog had already decided to take a leap of faith and see what they could accomplish; the leader’s agreement to support them only filled them with more confidence. I was at the back with my group rearing to have a go.
The frog had its fear, but the group led by captain Star only amused it. It turned toward the charging lot of them and leaped straight up after it finished eating.
It shouldn’t be forgotten that this was the frog that had reared its clawless naked fingers at the city tower alone, and had been baptized by the resident's poison and stings. It had survived a much-much larger group of ants and now it was confident. It knew what to expect. And what it expected didn’t scare it one bit.
Therefore it dropped right in their middle of the group led by captain Star, crushing a few too many, and scrambling the tight group with the burst of wind that it created.
The frog gave a croak, an invitation to the others of its kind to enjoy a free meal. That boiled my blood, but also reminded me what the hateful one had said. The soldiers had died like she had predicted and more were going to die.
Is it truly my fault?
The little voice inside my head had a few words for me.
Does it matter? It said. Did you believe it’s possible to take down a predator without losing anyone? Are you that naïve?
The frog came into action. Its tongue flickered, picked up another group of soldiers, and took them into its mouth. We at the back released fear and remorse, but the ones at the front released determination and focus. Death of their companions only drove them forward.
It was a moment none were waiting for, but this was our chance for payback. The frog had to stop moving to crush the soldiers it had swallowed.
Soldiers rushed the frog from all directions. Mandibles pierced into its leaf green skin. The frog continued its task unperturbed, but that didn’t stop the soldiers burning with revenge. Its legs were stung countless times, the burning acid of our specialty injected into its body without any reserve.
There was a reaction!
The stung leg jittered slowly at first, the skin rippling before the muscles unrented started having heavy contractions. It creaked in annoyance, finally understanding its mistake. It wanted to leap away, but the soldiers in its throat hadn’t stopped moving yet. It had to kill them before going about escaping.
A few soldiers clamped their mandibles around the slippers skin of its large fingered hands. They drew something, a liquid red in color and scent familiar and horrifying. Everyone else was too invested in injuring the frog, but I remembered the scent. It was exactly the same as the liquid that the bloodsuckers drank. I remembered it exactly because the scent had left quite an impression on my mind.
But-but, what did this mean? Were my observations, my thoughts right? Was the moving mountain… alive?
It couldn’t be! How could that be right? No-no, I was wrong. I must have thought wrong. How could something like that exist in the word? But a single lick of the air was enough to prove me wrong and right. The red blood of the frog was the same as the moving mountain. It was the same, the same thing.
I ringed back. 5555th asked for my well being, but I knew she wouldn’t understand what I had learned. Everything was a lie. The protection of the city was a lie. We were insignificant. The frog? It was nothing! It wasn’t even worth a hair on the mountain back. Back! That’s what we had climbed. And those brown strands weren’t grass, but hair! It all made sense. Suddenly, everything made sense!
It was all too much for my mind to comprehend. So I lost consciousness for some time. When I came back, the frog was still trying to shake the ants clinging to its hands. As if that would do it.
Our mandibles might be smaller than those of a jawbreaker, but there was enough strength behind them to grip until death; that’s what the frog was going to have to go through. It would learn to fear us slowly.
Yes. Keep going. A drone added to my monologue. Keep thinking about these useless things. Distract yourself.
We might be of the same species, but the embers of the 43rd were smoldering hot. Star admitted it and the beast was feeling it personally. The soldiers held despite its efforts, and the frog croaked for the first time, in pain.
I wanted to stay hiding, but the status had a different plan for me. It colored my sight bright and gave me confidence.
You have acquired one of the TRUTH’s of the world.
Greed has converted TRUTH into a skill.
Skill: Truth acquired.
[Truth][Lv-1][Special]
[Learn truths to acquire skills.]
[Skill: Confidence has unlocked.]
***
[Confidence] [Tier-1] [Lv-1/10][Passive]
[The skill will help you get through tough times when you are feeling low and maybe shading suicidal even. Remember, no wall is insurmountable, no problem too big. Have some confidence.]
No problem is too big? Well, I begged to differ. However, it also made a point. Maybe the system was trying to be ironic, but we had indeed mounted the mountain. Confidence, as straightforward as it was, didn’t erase my fear or reasoned it away, but it did make me decisive. I conclude that it wasn’t the time to be worried about something that had never posed a problem for me or my city. How could something that never interfered with our life be a disaster; the frogs, however, as hell-bent on destroying the 43rd city. Dealing with them was should be my utmost priority. I could lose my mind later.
I knew I could function again when I starting wondering how Princess Tinbuji would react to the truth about the mountain.
I would have to ask our troop leader behind this reason for choosing the place to hunt, but he was nowhere to be found, and the frog was acting up again. It was done feeding.
It’s when I noticed that one daring soldier had climbed onto the frogs back. The soldiers tried to bite its left eye, but she missed the mark as the frog clawed her to the ground. She fell unconscious. I hurried to drag her away from the mayhem as soldiers entered a state of panicked rush around me. The frog retaliated by slamming its hands upon them, crushing soldiers with brute strength.
Its tongue flickered every now and then, leaving a rancid odor behind as it took soldiers into the bloody maw. But that’s when something odd occurred. The soldiers in frenzy released death odor, which stirred the frog. It shook away from them in haste as if worried about getting contaminated by them.
We can kill it! FORWARD! Attack its limbs. Death to the beast!
The soldiers cried. Mixed in-between them was Star’s official order.
Open its wounds and then it will be nothing. He had ordered. The scent was light, unlike the war cry’s that covered the ground, and floated at a height where my antennae could catch it.
The soldiers were confident. The death odor they released worked like a charm and had the frog befuddled. it couldn't figure out why its food suddenly smelled of rot and decomposing.
However, just when we thought the frog was in our grasp, it leaped away; well, it tried, but couldn’t. The leg that the front line soldiers had stunned beyond belief was swollen blue. The venom had reacted. The frog fell to the back of our group. It tried to run away still, but its leg seized and refused to budge. We overran it. Solders started drumming in victory, but the frog proved us wrong.
It made a defiant croak and licked the soldiers holding onto its skin. It didn’t eat them but spat them out. The ball of slime fell upon three soldiers who were instantly covered in the slimy glue, stuck to each other, and unable to move. The soldiers attack unperturbed, but it proved to be a foe worthy of being called a beast.
The frog licked another group off the ground, this one containing a well over ten soldiers; but it didn’t eat them, instead spat them at a group equally large.
The next group it swallowed it tried to eat, but they were determined to resist and defied its strength to the very end. They held their own against the frogs crushing throat muscles, maybe even managed to take hold of its slippery insides, because the frog croaked in pain, cursing.
Soldiers took charge to hurt the beast while it was immobile. Star had tried attacking it head-on, but he had only proved our troop leaders point that it was a foolish tactic. He had failed and it was time for a change of plan.
The promise came awake in my mind when I saw him standing dull-witted, staring blankly at the soldiers rushing at the frog. 43rd city was not the end of my journey. We needed to get through the frogs. This place was only a way station on the path, my destination was still far and the time was slipping. The frog was dangerous, but the termites endangered the safety of our whole kingdom! I couldn’t stop there; I had to keep moving. Princess was waiting for me.
***
I started thinking because that's what I was good at. My paltry strength wasn’t needed, but a good plan could easily change the impossible into possible. The well and the frog at the bottom of it proved me right.
We needed to find a weakness, something to bring the frog to the ground.
It had no exoskeleton, but a thick layer of skin; not six legs but two. It was no wonder it couldn’t walk. Leaping around was not a superior way of getting around. Its head couldn’t rotate like ours, but its sight was sharp.
Though, its eyes were too big a target to ignore, but how to get atop its head.
It sat straight with its head parallel to the ground: there is a blind spot right underneath its jaw. Moreover, its tongue could only attack in a straight line without much flexibility. It even needed to position its head in the direction it wanted to attack. It couldn’t fire in rapid successions and was immovable while swallowing food.
Only one had managed to reach its eyes, and she had done it by, mounting the frog’s back!
That’s it!
The frog had another blind spot at the back of its head, besides the one directly underneath its jaw! A way… I had found a way to take it down. Now, all we needed was a group of soldiers ready to take the chance and someone to lead them, someone who could see and would be followed irrespective of the charge and order; and another group to distract the frog while they did their job. That someone would be Star.
The second group would keep their distance, but the first group needed to be led by our troop leader, and he was nowhere to be found. There was no one else who could see… other than you. My inner voice corrected.
NO, I said.
Yes and yes, It laughed and I gave in. There was no other option.
I hurried toward Star. He was charging straight toward the frog leading his remaining soldiers to their death.
Stop! Hear me out. I scented, but he was too lost, too engrossed in his thoughts. He kept going, leading; his troops exhilarated to accompany him one last time.
What are you thinking? 55555th tried to stop me, but I had made up my mind.
I charged into Star and tackled him to the ground. I kept special care so my mandibles wouldn’t injure him. Together we skittered on the ground and came to a stop some distance away. The commotion forced the soldiers to stop, buzzing antennae raging to go without him.
Pain reignited hope in his eyes. What are you doing? He said skittering away from me and heaving up to his feet.
Hear me out. I have a plan, but I need to know where our troop leader is. He’s the only one who can do it.
What? He said, his antennae were clearly out of tune. I didn’t want to admit anything else.
I repeated my words, slowly, and he listened.
He’s dead. Your troop leader is dead. He told me.
How? I asked but shook my head. No. I said. Don’t tell me. We can still do this.
Alright, He said, not caring for an answer either. It wasn’t the time for answers, but actions. What do you want us to do? He asked, ready to get eaten by the frog if it meant killing it.
Harry it with poison —I told him— but stay out of the range of its tongue, and the most important thing—
I know. He interrupted; his energetic self pushing through the determined role he had taken. You want us to distract it, right? I still don’t understand what you are trying to do, but I agree. Your troop leader was right. I was wrong to fight it head-on. But if you think you can take it down, I’m all up for it.
5555th looked at me worried, but I told her there was no reason to.
We are only going to mount its back.
I was determined.
Captain Star grouped the remaining soldiers and spread them around the frog-like a triple-layered net. They kept their distance, however, rendering the frog’s tongue ineffective. And I led a group of twenty soldiers that included my party of five. They only followed me because 5555th insisted.
The hateful one made sure to let me know her thoughts. I hope you have a good plan because I don’t have any plans of dying yet!
I do. I told her, but she wasn’t content by my response.
I had gotten another skill out of it called leadership that increased my faith and charm, but it wasn’t more important than thinking about my next steps. The frog took precedence and it was a temporary position, given out of necessity, not skill. Well, the system had acknowledged me as a leader, but its acknowledgment was as weightless as a leaf.
We went to the right, away from the fight. We needed to get out of the frog’s line of its sight if we wanted to surprise it. Star pulled the soldiers back and made the marksmen harry the frog from a distance, but the frog didn’t stay quiet either. It leaped into them. But that didn’t work this time as the soldiers were distant and experienced enough to dodge. It could have been a disaster if the soldiers were still grouped together. Only one soldier lost her life, which when compared to the last time was way a better performance. Still, a loss was a loss.
Don’t worry about them. 2K scented. A beast like that will cause death whatever you do. Kill it and the pain will stop.
Everything is happening thanks to him. The hateful one scolded. We would still be resting in the post tower if it wasn’t for him.
That’s not true. One of the soldiers raised a scent flag in my favor. It was his city, his home, and had tagged along upon hearing my plan. You say that because you haven’t lived in the terror of watching your friends leave to go for a hunt, nothing knowing whether they will return or not. Our city is worth dying for. I only regret that no one stopped to think of another method to hunt the frogs, an easier way. For generations, we have hunted them and always at a great expense.
The pits have been there all our lives and we never stopped to think they could be used to trap our enemies. The workers always cried about needing to repair them every time it rained and how much time that wasted. Another said. Thanks to you things will change.
The hateful one-clicked her mandibles in annoyance and disappeared to the back of the group. Oh, how I enjoyed her embarrassment.
I was planning to use the drainage lanes to get behind the frog, but its leap made short of our work. 5555th asked me if we should attack it since we were already behind it; I digressed. I told them my findings regarding its blind spot, and they agreed that the risk of being found out wasn’t worth it.
Still, my findings were simply a theory I had cooked up. For all I knew, it could be complete garbage. The frog could have all-around sight with no blind or dead spots.
Slowly, I led my group toward the frog, releasing a trail straight as a line etched in the sand.
Heart pounced inside my chest. I could feel my follower’s anxiety and anxiousness. But they had no hesitation. They were as determined as me; maybe more. I didn’t know for how long captain Star would be able to hold the frog. This was our only chance. We laid flat on the ground every time the frog moved its head enough to see us.
We had to be accurate and sharp. There would be no second chances. I climbed up the frog’s slippery back reminding myself that. There would be no second chances.
Attack! I released and climbed atop of its gaining another skill. This one was called Climb.
Go for its eyes. I told them and they listened. It seemed that danger and skills went hand in hand. I had acquired more skills in the last ten minutes than I had learned in a few days. I pushed the prompt aside and pushed toward its big, black eye. I saw myself growing larger in the inky blackness of its oddly shaped eyeball and charged with my mandible pointed straight. Fluids leaked from its eyeball and the beast croaked in pain.
I felt its momentum shifting. Hold on! Someone released at the same time as the frog leaped. It was running away.
I wouldn’t let him. Not now, after reaching so far. I had to die! I would have dug into the slimy insides of its eye if my mandibles worked. Anything, I would have done anything.
But as my condition stood I could only hold onto the soft gelatinous surface of the black marble, pull my head out and stab it again. I repeated the process so many times that the mysterious system decided I needed a skill for the action. Well, it gave me two.
Stab one time in the heart to kill, two times to make sure they die, three times is a slip of hand; but who the fuck stab someone more the twenty times in the same place? You are losing it, dude!
You have acquired skill: Sharp weapon mastery.
[Sharp weapon][Tier-1][Lv-1/10][Mastery]
[Sometimes the only difference between life and death is determined by the sharpness of the cut.]
[Effect: You deal 1% more damage to your opponents with a sharp weapon.]
[Reward: Lv-1: You have acquired skill: Stab.]
***
[Stab][Lv-1/10][Tier-1][ [Passive]
[You deal 10% more damage with a stabbing action.]
[Cost: Uses 10% of your endurance.]
The frog descended, more like crashed to the ground, headfirst. A few soldiers fell away during the descent, and the shock from the fall jerked me out of its blasted left eye and to the ground.
I lost a few seconds to the trauma and when light my eyes, the frog as having a trauma, too. It was crushing soldiers during its jittering and convulsions. I had hurt it more than I expected.
I saw Star troubling to keep the soldiers safe, but he was doing a great job. They were brimming with heat, wanting to rush at the beast since it was already down. We had hurt the frog. It was proof that it could be killed. What can be hurt can be killed.
However, we needed to keep away for the frog and let it exhaust itself. Star was a veteran, and he understood this simple thing. I didn’t, which proved to be a good thing in our case because the beast was recovering. It was getting used to the undulating pain that arose from its eye. Captain Star being an ordinary soldier couldn’t see it, but I could.
Suddenly, the frog stood up, letting me sight a wound on its chest. Out of utter luck, it had managed to open the wound it had received during it tower raid. Pungent stark red blood was starting to leak from it, creating a phantom red incision down its chalk-white chest.
That’ll work. I decided. I will make it work.
I set the wound my target and charged toward it.
The skill picked me from the ground and pulled me along. The frog was so angry it didn’t notice me approaching at breakneck speed. Lone mandible pointed forward, I stabbed into the wound like an arrow and broke through. It cried in pain and the shivers almost pushed me out, but I dug in.
A wall of muscles stopped me. Since I couldn’t go in, I decided to up between the layer of its skin and the muscles wall. I felt it clawing at the chest. One time a finger even brushed me, but I was motivated and feverish. There was no way it was going to stop me any longer. Its heart pulsed beat after beat in the chest. That was my destination. I was going to blast its heart into three pieces, one for each chamber.
I could feel it’s every movement while crawling inside. Its muscles went taught before it leaped. It was taking me to the pond. There was nothing anyone could do once it had taken to the air. I hoped some of the soldiers had managed to get hold because if it survived this time, there would be no next time. It lost momentum and fell toward the ground. The power transmitted from its legs up the body, and it leaped again, using the momentum to keep moving. Its chest rattled like a hollow reed when it croaked for help.
I found a small gap between its muscles and collar bones and pushed through it. I had to shear them with my mandible, cutting the fibrous thin threads keeping the two together.
The frog shuddered every time I cut one of the threads. I enjoyed its pain very much; a little too much maybe. Its chest muscles involuntarily twitched and the bones they were joined to crackled in freedom. I wormed my way through its chest cavity when the ole was big enough for me to pass through, stabbing every inch of its soft flesh and veins. Its insides exploded in blood around me. I followed its wildly thumping heartbeat and found the organ, a monstrosity of its own.
But before I could even touch its heart, the frog gave a loud croak of the kind I had never heard before. It was full of pain. I had leaped high right before, but it didn’t fall back to the ground no matter how long I waited. Then its heartbeat slowed and seized completely.
The frog died, but I hadn’t killed it.
I climbed my way out of its throat and found the ground quickly skittering past me. We were moving at an unprecedented speed past the green pastures and into territory unknown.
A sky predator had caught the frog and was taking us far-far away. There was no one there beside me. I was all alone. My quest couldn’t have gotten any more complicated.
